Spurned admirer guilty of murdering his ‘bully’ boss

AN OBSESSED university worker has been found guilty of murdering his boss after stabbing her 15 times and scrawling “bully” across her forehead.

David Browning, pictured, left Jillian Howell lying covered in blood on the floor of her lounge after attacking her repeatedly with a knife in the chest, neck and abdomen, before writing the word across her head in one-inch letters with a black marker pen.

The jury of eight women and four men returned the verdict at Hove Crown Court yesterday after deliberating for two hours and 20 minutes, and there were cheers from the packed public gallery.

The trial had heard that Browning, a deputy to Ms Howell in the University of Brighton payroll department, was a spurned admirer who was “deeply self-centred, selfish, with a vindictive streak”.

Prosecutor Alan Gardner called him the “epitome of urban normality”, leading a stable life until it was jolted by the death of his father in 2016.

Browning claimed he and Ms Howell clashed at work but then became friends, and he decided he had to kill her after battling depression.

Browning, 52, planned the killing for months after forming an “intense attachment” to her and fearing she would reject him, Mr Gardner said.

He became “possessive, controlling and jealous”, buying the 46-year-old gifts.

Mr Gardner said: “He discovered she didn’t have the same feelings as him. She rejected him and he reacted with anger and violence.”

The father, who has a 21-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter, admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility and possession of a knife in a public place, but this was rejected by the prosecution.

Browning will be sentenced to life imprisonment today and was warned by Judge Christine Laing he will face a minimum of at least 25 years.